LaFlorecita wrote:Better than expected, with some unexpected points. Very happy with Senechal's 5th place in Almeria. Great performance as well by Dani Martinez. And of course a GREAT win by Moser and actually he is less popular than I thought, just checked and he isn't even on 50% of the teams On the flip side Minali lost a chunk of points compared to last year when he scored big points in Dubai thanks to the cancellation of the Hatta Dam stage. Also, I would have liked a little more from Gaudu and Brambilla. Unfortunately it seems Van Poppel will be a very good pick which kinda stings because I initially forgot about him and then when I discovered him I couldn't figure out a good way to fit him in so I passed

We're sort of the opposite on this one. Van Poppel was in my initial team and although I wavered a little, stuck with him as he's just too talented. Already seems to have settled in brilliantly at Lotto and I think they'll have a good schedule of races for him to score at least 600. Moser I came across when on the second draft, but he's a rider I just don't understand, and couldn't be bothered researching his injury history. Congrats to those who have him. He could be a real difference maker based on this start. I'll have to hope the likes of Enger and De Bie compensate.

One rider we share and who has been disappointing is Pantano. So was relived to read he only started riding his bike in mid January after a sinusitis operation. Seems to have settled for stage-hunting at the GTs and has ruled out the one-day races. So it's all on the one-week races for him to be anything like a decent pick now.

Good to see Mamykin back at Andalucia, and would be nice to see Taarame show a little flash of form

**note: I'm looking for people to take on the posting of the updates for the following months: May, June, July. If you are interested, please let me know either here or by PM, thanks!**

This week, 127 of the 129 teams moved up or down the standings in this game - it was a busy one! With early-season action on 3 continents giving us some indication of who's in form, who's behind schedule, and who you can't figure out at all, the CQ points pot is heating up to the full boil it tends to sustain from March to September. Let's see where the dust settled, shall we?

The dust, in fact, settled with AupaPyama pulling in the glory for the top finish of the week. The main reasons for this were rare pick Magnus Cort (3 teams, 150 points) and not-as-rare pick Moreno Moser (57 teams, 140 points), but also a great group of supporting characters including Alaphilippe, Gaviria and Cavendish. MADRAZO comes in a fairly close second, rocking the same Cort/Moser duo, as well as the Ala/Cav combo, with Danny van Poppel and David Gaudu for good measure. PremierAndrew snags third with a similar combo of riders, replacing Cort's 150 points with the pretty-much-as-good 140 from Caleb Ewan.

This jump is even bigger than the 67-place jump a few weeks ago! I guess it makes sense when you consider that the leaders this week got between 5-600 points, and the top 10 teams have between 1200-1400 total. So really, lots of teams got more points this week than the other 4 weeks combined! Phew. The list is almost a carbon copy of the previous one, with rote_laterne and ChrisDK swapping spots.

Double weekly winner Jon Ezeitza holds on at the top, but ChrisDK moves up to 2nd overall with a strong 4th place this week. AupaPyama gets in there, as the 45 points for a weekly win are still enough to get you in the top 5 in this young season. No other points from the top teams here.

Jon Ezeitza does not, however, hold on in the overall. The risk of taking a rare team is that when the popular riders start scoring, you can have some rough weeks, and with Chav, Cav, and Moser all doing quite well the last couple of weeks, that magical early season run was bound to end. Congrats to new leader bminchow! Their team has been sniffing around the top of the table for a few weeks now, and a good week vaults them into first place. Newcomer Nathanptz moves up one spot to second, and abbulf leaps into the top 10 with style, landing on the podium. Three double-digit jumps into the top 10, and four double digit drops out of it this week: the aforementioned abbulf, as well as Valv.Piti, Ferminal and CQmanager move into the top 10, while Jon Ezeitza, Jspear, postmanhat and Sneekes tumble out!

Just a note on updates and how the timing works, in case anyone is wondering - I endeavour to get the updates out every Monday, which usually happens. The hour-by-hour timing isn't so great this year, though. I've found in recent years that usually CQ has an update out by 9am my time (in central Canada), so I could do it in the morning... but this year they have been coming out a bit later. The post I'm responding to was posted about 8 hours before the update came out on CQ, so my update will of necessity be a bit later than that. And I have a work commitment for 3-4 hours every Monday afternoon so it'll usually wait until late afternoon my time, or close to midnight in Europe. Just thought I'd clarify in case folks were wondering!

An interesting bunch. Three full out sprinters, and Capiot does well in the more selective stuff (of which there are a couple of stages), but not against this class. Coquard and Nizzolo should do well in the hilly stuff though. Lopez and Kangert start their seasons so who knows but normally Lopez should top 5. I'm really, really interested to see how McNulty climbs. His TT bona fides are unquestioned but there are very few data points on his climbing. He did okay in Alsace last year as his only stage race, and he did just fine as a junior the year before that, but that's nothing to extrapolate to this level. Could end up anywhere on Green Mountain, who knows.

Andalucia

Joe Dombro- oh wait, I don't have him this year? Sorry, force of habit.

Okay, I guess I have Mamykin and that's it? Hmm, guess I'll have to cross my fingers that the more popular riders there like De Bie and Taaramae and Moser just chill and roll in with the grupetto then.

Algarve

Jurgen RoelandtsOwain DoullLennard KamnaSam Oomen

i feel like Oomen is my guy here - hopefully I can depend on him for a solid 10th-15th, or even higher. Roelandts looked fast in Valenciana and BMC looked like they were into helping him sprint, but I'd rather him hold back here and score big in the classics if I had to choose one (if not, why not choose both right?) Kamna starts his season so who knows, and Doull will only get CQ points if they start giving them for fetching bottles.

Haut Var

Sondre Holst Enger

Okay then, I guess I'm cheering for Sondre Holst Enger in this one. I dunno about them hills though...

Thank you skidmark for the punctual updates. Always nice to read! Had a good week, thanks to Moser, Van Poppel, Alaphilippe and especially Vliegen who took 74 unexpected points in Dubai. I have high hopes for him this year, let's hope he can continue like this.

Thanks for the update skidmark. I was not aware my team was that good this week. I think I reached my highest position ever in this game. Those 15 minutes of fame ...

I now expect Bernal to be the second best scoring Sky rider this year (after Kwiatkowski). I was surprised he is such a rare pick. I had him on my initial team but scrapped him for Moscon as I feared he would not score to much in the Vuelta while last year he scored massively in the Italian autumn races.

LaFlorecita wrote:Unfortunately it seems Van Poppel will be a very good pick which kinda stings because I initially forgot about them and then when I discovered him I couldn't figure out a good way to fit him in so I passed

Yeah, van Poppel will be a pain in the ***. I thought he would be leadout for Groenewegen most of the time, but apparently that's not the case.

My thoughts exactly. He should be good for at least 600 points.

Popchu wrote: Had a good week, thanks to Moser, Van Poppel, Alaphilippe and especially Vliegen who took 74 unexpected points in Dubai. I have high hopes for him this year, let's hope he can continue like this.

I'm with you. I also had him last year when he underperformed, so it's payback time!

Nathanptz wrote:Happy with Bettiol's 3rd play today, gets his season going!

Pretty insignificant in terms of points, but gives me hope he'll have some freedom despite GVA's presence.Unfortunately it seems Felline is still struggling a little, but at least he's fully recovered from his illness. My rarest pick, Nicola Conci, was doing very well in Oman but crashed today in the final 3km while in the lead group. No time lost but hope he's not injured. I'm not sure what to expect from him on Green Mountain.